It is necessary to have controls to prevent dangerous underdosage or overdosage of medication for patients that take multiple medications at various times of the day. Elderly patients, for example, have been documented as the greatest users of daily multiple medications and are the most likely to be confused as to whether their prescribed medication has been taken in accordance with their doctor's instructions. The confusion experienced by elderly patients can result in missed or improperly taken dosage levels. The risk of improper medication increases when there are multiple attendants responsible for the administration of the medication. Further problems may arise when the mental or physical condition of the patient has impaired his/her ability to comprehend which medications are to be taken, when the medications are to be taken, and at what dosage level the medications are to be administered.
Earlier devices designed to deal with the problem of insuring multiple medications are properly dispensed have certain deficiencies that render the reliability of such devices less than completely satisfactory. U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,626 issued to Noble, for example, discloses a medication timing and dispensing apparatus that includes a timer module and several medication containers. The user is required to remove their multiple medications from the original containers supplied by the pharmacist, sort the various medications according to dosage time, and distribute the various medications in the medication containers. The requirement for removing the medications from their original containers and sorting the medications prior to filling the medication containers of the device can cause a great deal of confusion for eldery patients thereby leading to errors. In addition, separation of the medications from their original containers also deprives the user of the availability of the dosage instructions provided on the original containers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,105 issued to Miller addresses the problem of removing the medications from their respective containers by providing large compartments that can contain multiple bottles of medication. Medications that are to be taken at the same time of day are located in the same compartment. The device disclosed in Miller, however, can still cause confusion by loading multiple medication bottles within a single compartment. For example, a user may open more than one bottle at the same time and handle multiple medications of similar size and shape. If the user becomes confused when dispensing medication from the bottles, he may replace certain excess medications in the wrong bottles, thereby mixing the contents of the bottles which will cause a medication error the next time the medications within the compartment must be taken. Further, the device disclosed in Miller fails to provide a mechanism for insuring that the correct container was opened and that the medications bottles were replaced in the container.
In view of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide a medication dosage instruction and alarm device for multiple medications that does not require the medications to be removed from their original containers. It is a further object of the invention to provide a medication dosage instruction and alarm device that provides a queuing feature that insures only a single medication is taken at a time, thereby avoiding the possibility of mixing the medications. In addition, it is a still further object of the invention to provide a medication dosage instruction and alarm device that insures medication containers are properly relocated after use, prompts the user with dosage instructions, does not require resetting by the user and automatically calculates the dosage periods. Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent after review and study of the preferred embodiments of the invention described in detail below.